Kombucha–proteinoid crystal bioelectric circuits

Mougkogiannis, Panagiotis; Nikolaidou, Anna; Adamatzky, Andrew

Abstract

We propose “kombucha–proteinoid crystal bioelectric circuits” as a sustainable bio-computing platform. These circuits are hybrid biological-inorganic devices that utilize crystal growth dynamics as the physical substrate to convert information. Microfluidic prototypes couple custom-synthesized thermal proteinoids within kombucha cellulose matrices and metastable calcium carbonate solutions. This bio-mineral configuration examines if precision modulation of crystal growth rates could instantiate reconfigurable logic gates for unconventional computing applications. Programming organic acid secretions allows for the adjustment of biotic-mineral polarity, thereby establishing microbial-synthetic pairings that consistently regulate the crystal growth rate of calcite deposition. By coordinating intrinsic physicochemical phenomena, accrued mineral densities literally crystallize additive/multiplicative operations via Boolean AND/OR logics. An additional way to generate structured logics similar of neural assemblies is by chaining modular crystallizer units. Proteinoid-guided carbonate crystallization may prove to be a viable material platform for unconventional computing-green, self-organizing, scalable architectures grown directly from solution-pending definitive affirmation of proof-of-concept.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 23, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Oct 28, 2024
• Deposit Date: Nov 1, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 1, 2024
• Journal: ACS Omega
• Electronic ISSN: 2470-1343
• Publisher: American Chemical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.4c07319
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/13347577